Ear disorders are common afflictions affecting many people. For example, otitis media (OM), an inflammatory process of the middle ear, is the most common clinical condition seen by pediatricians in children 15 years old and younger. OM is characterized by the presence of middle ear effusion (MEE), a middle ear infection. Complications of undiagnosed OM can include hearing loss and consequently delay in the development of speech and language skills. The combination of the gravity of the complications of undiagnosed OM and an unsatisfactory, noninvasive diagnostic technique often leads to unnecessary over medication of children with antibiotics.
The most reliable determination of the presence of MEE is direct surgical exploration (myringotomy). This is accomplished by making a small incision in the tympanic membrane followed by fluid aspiration. It is an invasive procedure and must be performed in a surgical setting under anesthesia. None of the existing non-invasive methods for determining the presence of MEE achieve 100% agreement with myringotomy. In order to reduce unnecessary antibiotic use and assuring at the same time effective and complication-free treatment of patients with OM, there is an urgent need to develop a simple but more accurate method for non-invasive method for MEE detection.